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Millet Myo Velcro

Out of the box, the Myo (billed as an “expert slipper”) looks like a high-end shoe. Stiff, downturned, with a talon-sharp toe, I expected them to edge fiendishly and hurt like the dickens. For about a month, the Myo delivered on both counts. Slowly, however, they started to feel more comfortable. Unfortunately, even as my feet were relieved, the performance suffered. The mid sole softened. The downturn straightened. The heel became baggy. They still performed reasonably well, but soon I was wearing the Myo for warm-ups and pulling out another shoe for the biz.

The Myo features a sole that has been sculpted with a laser. A pattern of grooves is etched into the rubber. Millet claims that this micro grooving facilitates mechanical deformation of the rubber and enhances stickiness. This might be true, but the etching is too far from the edge of the boot and only comes into play when you’re standing on wide holds or big smears. The etching needs to be brought toward the front of the boot where climbers stand.

On the upside, the Myo is comfortable and works great to 5.11. I’d choose the Myo for days of mileage on routes or boulders, or for multi pitch climbs where it pays to have an easy-on/off shoe at belays. But for projects it lacked the precision I’ve come to rely on.

Millet’s laser-grooved rubber isn’t the first instance of a designer fiddling with the sole of a climbing boot in hopes of making it perform better. Climber and inventor Greg Lowe told Rock and Ice that he once had the idea that impregnating a rubber sole with wire bristles might make it stick better to slabs. He went as far as making and testing a prototype. Unfortunately for those that struggle with slabs, the shoes, according to Lowe, made climbing too easy and he scrapped the idea.

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